Difference between revisions of "Commodore 64"

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The Commodore 64 is a home computer released by [[Commodore]] and the best-selling single model of personal computer in history. Unlike modern computers which boot into an operating system, the Commodore 64 boots into Commodore BASIC, a primitive programming language which used little memory, but also was way too slow to do much.
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The '''''Commodore 64''''' is a home computer released by [[Commodore]] and the best-selling single model of personal computer in history. Unlike modern computers which boot into an operating system, the Commodore 64 boots into Commodore BASIC, a primitive programming language which used little memory, but also was way too slow to do much.
  
 
Software was either typed in BASIC or loaded through peripheral devices like disk drives, cassette drives, or ROM cartridges. However, even the standard loaders were so slow that many people and companies developed and acquired fast loaders. Tape loaders were still slowed down by hardware, but made up for the waiting time by playing music, which is still fondly remembered in the UK, where disk drives were especially expensive. Disk loaders could be much faster, though even more so when blanking the screen and not playing music, which many did.
 
Software was either typed in BASIC or loaded through peripheral devices like disk drives, cassette drives, or ROM cartridges. However, even the standard loaders were so slow that many people and companies developed and acquired fast loaders. Tape loaders were still slowed down by hardware, but made up for the waiting time by playing music, which is still fondly remembered in the UK, where disk drives were especially expensive. Disk loaders could be much faster, though even more so when blanking the screen and not playing music, which many did.
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==Music and Sound==
 
==Music and Sound==
The Commodore 64 had a built-in [[6581|SID]] chip. The chip is clocked at the same frequency as the CPU (1022727 Hz on NTSC machines and 985248 Hz on PAL machines). However, most sound drivers are clocked at the screen refresh rate (50.125 Hz on PAL, 59.826 Hz on NTSC) to avoid interruptions through the video chip. On the wrong region's machine, pitch is off by 65 cents and speed by up to 19%. The speed difference can even worsen bugs in the SID chip's envelope, which in turn mutes notes. When porting to another region, frequencies and durations are ideally to be converted, although, if anything, many programmers simply postponed one driver call out of 5.
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The Commodore 64 had a built-in [[6581|SID]] chip. The chip is clocked at the same frequency as the CPU (1022727 Hz on NTSC machines and 985248 Hz on PAL machines). However, most sound drivers are clocked at the screen refresh rate (59.826 Hz on NTSC, 50.125 Hz on PAL) to avoid irregular skips through the video chip. On the wrong region's machine, pitch is off by 65 cents and speed by up to 19%, and this speed difference can worsen bugs in SID's envelope, muting notes. When porting to another region, frequencies and durations are ideally to be converted, although, if anything, many programmers simply postponed one driver call out of 5.
  
 
Also [[Sound Expander]] and [[Voice Master]] were produced for this platform, but they were supported too poorly.
 
Also [[Sound Expander]] and [[Voice Master]] were produced for this platform, but they were supported too poorly.
  
 
==Composition==
 
==Composition==
In the 1980s, composers usually wrote their own drivers in BASIC or assembly language and typed the notes as numbers. Although there have been editors which allowed their music to be embedded into other programs as early as 1983 (most notably, [[Master Composer (C64)|Master Composer]]), they were often too limited and bloated for games until 1987.
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Most composers wrote their own drivers in BASIC or [[assembly]] and typed the notes as numbers. Sometimes, off-the-shelf [[:Category:Commodore 64 Editors|music editors]] were used and sometimes modified to overcome limits, like being too slow, too big, or adding support for simultaneous sound effects (sometimes from other drivers), modulations, relocation, or embedding songs into other programs in the first place. Some also hacked drivers by popular composers, especially [[Rob Hubbard]]'s.
  
 
==Links==
 
==Links==
 
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64] - Wikipedia.
 
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64] - Wikipedia.

Revision as of 18:02, 24 January 2020

Platform - C64.png
Commodore 64
Commodore 64.jpg
Released: 1982-08-??
Discontinued: 1994-04-??
Developer: Commodore
Type: Hardware

The Commodore 64 is a home computer released by Commodore and the best-selling single model of personal computer in history. Unlike modern computers which boot into an operating system, the Commodore 64 boots into Commodore BASIC, a primitive programming language which used little memory, but also was way too slow to do much.

Software was either typed in BASIC or loaded through peripheral devices like disk drives, cassette drives, or ROM cartridges. However, even the standard loaders were so slow that many people and companies developed and acquired fast loaders. Tape loaders were still slowed down by hardware, but made up for the waiting time by playing music, which is still fondly remembered in the UK, where disk drives were especially expensive. Disk loaders could be much faster, though even more so when blanking the screen and not playing music, which many did.

Games

Models

Music and Sound

The Commodore 64 had a built-in SID chip. The chip is clocked at the same frequency as the CPU (1022727 Hz on NTSC machines and 985248 Hz on PAL machines). However, most sound drivers are clocked at the screen refresh rate (59.826 Hz on NTSC, 50.125 Hz on PAL) to avoid irregular skips through the video chip. On the wrong region's machine, pitch is off by 65 cents and speed by up to 19%, and this speed difference can worsen bugs in SID's envelope, muting notes. When porting to another region, frequencies and durations are ideally to be converted, although, if anything, many programmers simply postponed one driver call out of 5.

Also Sound Expander and Voice Master were produced for this platform, but they were supported too poorly.

Composition

Most composers wrote their own drivers in BASIC or assembly and typed the notes as numbers. Sometimes, off-the-shelf music editors were used and sometimes modified to overcome limits, like being too slow, too big, or adding support for simultaneous sound effects (sometimes from other drivers), modulations, relocation, or embedding songs into other programs in the first place. Some also hacked drivers by popular composers, especially Rob Hubbard's.

Links